This is a copy of my talk given at Ayia Kyriaki and Saint Luke’s in the Anglican Church of Paphos on Sunday 28 July 2024. The Bible reading was Ephesians 3:14-21

Prayer

Heavenly Father
I thank You for Your word
By the power of the Holy Spirit
May You speak to my heart
And change my life
In the precious name of Jesus I pray
Amen.

Introduction

Have you ever put a lot of work into a gift and given it to someone with the hope that they would like it? Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time searching for a special present and you hope that person will be happy with what you’ve chosen for them. The Apostle Paul has brought the Ephesians a gift. And he’s brought them the gift that God worked so hard to prepare – Grace.

The root word for grace in Greek is charis (where we get the word ‘charismatic’). It’s a verb (a doing word) which means I will rejoice and be glad. God’s grace releases us to be who we are meant to be.

The word grace is used 154 times in the NT.  Over 100 (2/3) of them are in the writings of Paul, and almost a quarter of those (24) are in Romans. The greetings and blessings in all 13 of Paul’s letters include the word grace. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul tells us what grace is and what it isn’t.

Grace is not: Following the ways of this world (vs2); it is not gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature (vs3); it is not following our desires and thoughts (vs3); it is not earning our salvation through works (vs9); it is not boasting in ourselves (vs9).

Grace is: Being made alive in Christ when we were dead in sin (vs1&5); it is being saved by grace (vs5); it is being raised up with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms (vs6); it is showing the incomparable riches of his love (vs7); it is the gift of God (vs8); it is to show good works (vs10).

Paul is praying the Ephesians will receive God’s grace but in order for them/us to be able to receive God’s grace the way he intends, and for it to change us in a positive way, we need a change of heart. We need something deep inside of us to move.

And that is exactly what Paul is praying for here. That they would feed on grace and trust in grace. Paul is praying for hearts that can receive God’s grace and he prays four prayers to enable this to happen. He prays:

  1. For inner strength through the Spirit vs14-16

Like the Lord’s prayer, Paul addresses our Heavenly Father and prays in vs16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. 

Everyone is going through something. Everyone here has something that is stressing them out or they wish was different. And maybe you’ve been trying to manage it, but it just keeps getting worse and worse. What if God wants us to get weaker before we can get stronger? What if we actually need to be weak in order to understand God’s grace? JC Ryle: Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible to drive us to our knees. Paul prays for the Ephesians to experience inner strength.

  1. For Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith vs17a

Ephesians 3:17: so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Verse 16 talked about God’s ‘glorious riches’ and this verse talks about Christ ‘dwell[ing]’ in our hearts. Can you think of any place in the Bible where it talks about God’s glory and dwelling? When Moses built the tabernacle, God’s glory came down in the form of a cloud and filled it. When king Solomon built the temple, God’s glory came down in the form of a cloud and filled it. And now, Paul is praying that God’s glory cloud through the Holy Spirit would fill our hearts with Christ.

The Holy Spirit is like the tech crew at a theatre. You know they are there, but you don’t see them. They dress up in black and their job is not to be seen. They run the sound so the actors can be heard, and they shine the lights so the actors can be seen. Without the tech crew you would still have a play, but there would be much less mystery and beauty. We’d end up watching the actors move in and out of scenes and set up props. The Holy Spirit shines his light on Jesus.

As the Holy Spirit fosters a love for Jesus in you, Jesus is dwelling in your heart through faith. One of the signs of true Christianity is a deep love for Jesus himself, for his work on the cross, and for him saving us from our sins. Do you love Jesus? Do you love Christ? That’s the Holy Spirit! As the Holy Spirit strengthens our hearts and a love for Christ fills our hearts it becomes possible to appreciate God’s grace. Philip Yancey: “Grace is the most perplexing, powerful force in the universe, and, I believe, the only hope for our twisted, violent planet.”

  1. To be rooted and grounded in love 17b

Paul’s third prayer request, vs17: And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love. Paul uses two-word pictures to express what he is praying for (c.f., Col 2:6-7). The first is that of a plant or a tree. To be ‘rooted’ in something is to dive deep into the soil and to draw your life from it. In the gospels Jesus tells the parable of different soils (Matthew 13:1-23). The seed the Sower scatters is the gospel message – the good news that Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life to any who will confess their sins and believe in him. He scatters some seed that doesn’t have any roots.

Matthew 13:5-6 Some [seeds] fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Jesus explains this parable to his disciples a few verses later.

Matthew 13:20-21 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

A life rooted in the gospel won’t fall away when times get tough. They are going to be days and weeks and maybe months when grace feels far away, but that’s what we need to have our roots deep in love – love for each other and love for God and his word and as the next verse shows us, deep in our understanding of God’s love for us. We want deep roots in God’s grace. A believer who is rooted in God’s grace and love won’t walk away when the storms come.

A house that is grounded won’t catch on fire when the lightning strikes. If you’re rooted in love, you won’t walk away when something goes terribly wrong in your life. If you’re grounded in love, you’ll be able to receive God’s grace and extend it to those around you who really need it.

  1. For our hearts to grasp the greatness of Christ’s love 18-19

Ephesians 18-19 And I pray that you… may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I have four points to highlight from this verse!

The width of Christ’s love encompasses a great multitude that is beyond number, consisting of people from every nation and tribe and people and tongue (Rev. 7:9). It also takes in every concern of every child of God in every age. No care of ours is beyond the breadth of His love.

The length of Christ’s love extends from eternity to eternity. We see this 1:4-5: He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. It is an eternal love that will not let us go!

The height of His love lifts us up to our exalted position of being seated with Him in the heavenly places (2:6). His eternal purpose for us is that we will be holy and blameless, lifted far above the temptations here below that so easily beset us.

The depth of His love caused Him to leave the glory of heaven and His exalted position there and come to this earth to be born as a baby. It moved Him to go to the extreme suffering of the cross, where He who knew no sin was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). It reached all the way down to where we were in our sin.

May we grasp how wide and long and high and deep Christ’s love is for us. It seems to me, and I agree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer on this in his book, The Cost of Discipleship* when he says that the Church has been guilty of cheapening God’s grace. It cost the Father the life of His son!

* Bonhoeffer makes these comments comparing what he calls ‘Cheap Grace and Costly Grace’ (Pages 35-37). This quote was not used in my sermon (due to time constraints) but it is well worth including in full here:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessing with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits … Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. … Costly grace is the gospel – which must be brought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son, ‘ye were bought at a price’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

In vs19 Paul says this love surpasses knowledge. It has to move from our heads and into our hearts. Hebrews 13:9: … it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. So, we pray for inner strength through the Spirit. We pray for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith. We pray that we would be rooted and grounded in love. We pray for our hearts to grasp the greatness of Christ’s love. We pray for hearts that can experience God’s grace.

That’s why Paul’s prayer is so important. And we’re reminded of Christ’s power in the closing verses of Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.